Humanverse

Stephon vs Steven

American parents have registered 1,297,590 Stevens since 1880, against 8,822 Stephons. Steven is still ahead, with 1,261 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Stephon against Steven, 1880 to 2025 0 10k 20k 30k 40k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Stephon Steven

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Steven has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Stephon had 80 and Steven had 1,514.

Side by side

  Stephon Steven
Total US births 8,8221,297,590
Most in one year 40638,491
Babies in 2025 461,261
Estimated living today 8,4001.1 million
Median age today 2955
Peak year 19971956
Best rank 504th boys10th boys
Rank in 2025 2,765th271st
First recorded 19551880
Girls / boys 14 / 8,8084,466 / 1,293,124

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Stevens alive today are over 55; half the Stephons are over 29. That is 26 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Stephon and Steven.